In full fairness, some empathetic employers recognize their workers’ plights during a crisis. But this piece is for all those self-absorbed souls who seek opportunities in disasters and whose sense of entitlement crosses the boundaries of basic human decency. You decide which one you are.
Subject: Leave Request on Account of the Recent Super-Cyclone
Dear Boss,
Congratulations on your new acquisition, and I regret that my first mail after your big bash can’t be on a cheerier note. Every guidebook on corporate etiquette would recommend otherwise, but here I am, risking your ire by asking for an untimely leave.
Yes, untimely, like the natural disaster that recently laid waste to where I live. Not the global pandemic. I’m well aware of your clear directive to “live with it.”
Amongst all the news you collect to quote every day in the mail, in some corner, you’ll find that the devastation caused by Super-Cyclone Amphan has been quite extensive. My family and I are relatively safer now. (Thanks for asking on your show-cause notice.)
Yet, I feel the concern that’d probably haunt you more is my absence during work hours in the upcoming days.
In its ill-conceived aftermath, the super-storm has claimed lives, property, and rampant destruction on a scale unprecedented in the city’s 250 years history. This is not mere conjecture!
Many coastal districts, including my own, have been without power, water, telecommunication, transport, and other utilities for the last five days. And the local administration, unprepared as always, is no close to an immediate resolution. These are not excuses for me to not work. I have visual aids to prove that.
Unlike my neighbor, thankfully, I didn’t lose the roof over my head, but I still am torn between priorities. While my stock of essential supplies is depleting and rotting due to lack of power, maintaining a fully working workstation is becoming incredibly difficult. I would apply for some paid leaves, but I don’t think I have enough to cover what I feel will be a long haul.
Trees uprooted, power poles bent out of shape, water-bodies flooded and electrocuted at some places, our whole neighborhood is currently surviving with the help of one privately distributed generator. This ancient piece of manually operated equipment is circling house to house every day, pumping water for daily usage, and that’s it.
It takes time, but it’s still more than what the administration has been able to provide so far. There are areas where electricity has not been promised for another month or more.
I’d ask for some advance payments, but I understand how tight company budgets can be. I really can’t wait for the bonus to get hefty after the third consecutive quarter now. I have exhausted my options to delay providing for the family.
Nice People Finish Last
As a suffering community, local residents are united in desperation and have started pitching in. If needs be, we may have to go the extra mile where the line between structures and shackles starts to fade.
On that note, I want to inform you about my involvement in some mass gatherings in the coming days. And I doubt that the company’s swore-upon social distancing norms will be maintained there. Your big speech on taking ownership comes to mind. It’s our Swades moment, and we are seizing it.
Our hopes lie with local industries for infrastructure support when the administration is stretched thin to keep up with ongoing demands. I sincerely hope they are not as cash-strapped.
Our days are divided into enforcing negotiations with administrative bodies and neighboring localities over repairmen and with industry houses for their heavy-duty equipment to enable them.
Three days into the crisis, we had already removed huge trees fallen on top of overhead wires single-handedly.
As the gaps between demands and available infrastructure widen, clashes between local neighborhoods over-allocated resources are imminent. Like the healthcare workers for Covid, electricians now are the post-cyclone “heroes”: worshipped on some occasions, beaten to a pulp by local hooligans on others.
Terms like kidnapping and hijacking also have a new (and more lenient) tone nowadays for power line repairmen, and the electric supply offices have become the new Walmarts to loot during a crisis. I believe that we are headed in the same direction.
What Really Matters
The latest update on the situation is: we have temporarily installed electricity in the neighborhood using palm trees as electric poles with much deliberation. But I can’t risk exposing the office laptop to continuous voltage fluctuations.
I’ve already burnt a few fuses over it. And even then, reactivating cell towers is not the first priority for the administration right now, considering the devastating circumstance the other parts of the city, nay, state are in. Army has been deployed to clear the debris and open arterial roads for transporting rescue aids.
I am right now at a friend’s place with some network connectivity to communicate this message. But I won’t think of this as a permanent solution since our deadlines are pretty exhaustive. And if I remember correctly, the company is not liable to pay for the overbearing internet expenses of a non-employee. I can’t pay for it myself either.
To extract some positivity from all this craziness, I realize your quote about achieving with teamwork is absolutely true and very much possible, if only we are willing to listen intently to each other’s woes.
I wish I could be that optimistic about my rejoining date, though. Perhaps, once I’m back, we can discuss redistributing the workload within that team we were thinking about hiring due to the lockdown.
Anyway, my laptop will die soon. Regrets again for all the inconvenience caused. I will be in touch with you as soon as my friend lets me back in his house again. He doesn’t like all the negativity I am spreading using his internet. I think our company policies will agree.
With hopes of an easier sleep tomorrow,
Your sincerest
WFH employee.
PS: If you’ve taken the trouble to come this far, I urge you to take it one step further. Share this post and spread the message of empowerment during these dire times when the world no longer pays heed to morals & ethics in the game of survival.
Every lashes will mark a bruise if the boss has human skin. 🤣🤣🤣🤣